Editor’s note: Between now and the Nov. 6 election, reporter Chris Burrell will be sitting with voters in coffee shops and cafes on the South Shore. Look for him in your town.

Massachusetts is not considered a battleground state in the presidential race, but voters still feel passion for the issues at stake – from the economy and social programs such as Medicare to education, immigration and abortion rights.

At coffee shops around Quincy on a recent Wednesday, people sat down their iced lattes, closed up their laptops and opened a window into their political minds.

The economy ranks high on the list of issues worrying people and coloring the lens through which they view this election.

“It’s hard for me to blame Obama. There’s a lot more to do with this economy than President Obama ... like the big banks,” said Alyssa Distasi, a 32-year-old nursing student who lives in Quincy.

Abortion rights and the survival of labor unions also figure heavily for Distasi, who sat in Gunther Tooties cafe on Hancock Street with Ana Pineu, a teacher from Portugal who is working this year at a school for the deaf in Canton.

On the other end of this block of Hancock Street, a young father who works in financial services sat in a Starbucks, his eyes glued to a laptop computer.

Dan Roderigues, 32, stressed the connection among education, social programs and America’s productivity.

“I have a young family with a 3-year-old. I want to know how are we going to look in this next generation?” he said. “I want to see what we’re doing to be more productive ... and who has a plan to globally compete.”

Such a roadmap, reasoned Roderigues, would frame education, and a prosperous America would be equipped to fund Medicare and Social Security.

Roderigues, sounding like one of those sought-after undecided voters, said he admired Mitt Romney’s follow-through in planning the Salt Lake City Olympics, but then he praised Obama for pouring money into America’s roads and bridges.

Although they sat in two different coffee shops and came from very different backgrounds, Jeff Flynn, a Quincy native, and Charles Stanley, a Chinese immigrant, shared liberal politics that clearly shape their perspective on the presidential election.

“My father was an FDR Democrat. I never vote Republican,” said Flynn, 56, who was raised in Quincy.

To Flynn, who was recently laid off from his job as a law school librarian in Boston, health care is a big issue in this race. He’d like to see even more social programs enacted.

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“I was hoping for a New Deal type of program (from Obama) but politically it wasn’t feasible,” said Flynn, who arrived at the Starbucks carrying a book about poetry.

Back at Gunther Tooties, Stanley, who emigrated from China more than 20 years ago, said he is suspicious of politicians who seem power-hungry. He wants to see compassion.

“I will vote for somebody who cares about people more than about just getting power,” said Stanley, a 40-year-old Quincy resident who works in database management. “The poor, the middle class, the rich – all of them need to be treated equally.”

Experience, said Stanley, counts a lot in a presidential candidate. And he said Obama’s already logged four years. “I’d like him to have four more,” he said.

But that’s the opposite view of 75-year-old Shirley Bragel, who grabbed a table at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Southern Artery, carrying a book critical of Obama titled “The Amateur.”

“He may be a nice guy but he’s just not qualified,” said Bragel, a Quincy resident who buys and sells houses and used cars.

Bragel’s hot button issues in this race are illegal immigrants, the declining value of real estate and unions.

“(Obama) should have let the car companies go bankrupt,” she said, arguing that America’s auto industry could have rebuilt without the unions.